The ‘Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation Bill, 2020’ was introduced in Parliament yesterday to offload 49% of its share in the capital market.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader placed the Bill in the House and it was sent to the respective Parliamentary Standing Committee for further examination. The Committee was asked to submit its report within 14 working days.
According to the proposed law, the government will own 51% shares while 49% will be offloaded for the public.
The bill was placed to update an ordinance promulgated in 1961 keeping a provision to offload the shares of BRTC in the capital market.
The authorized capital of the BRTC will be Tk1,000 which will be divided into 100 crore general shares with Tk10 base price. The authorized capital of the corporation under the existing law is only Tk6 crore.
The paid-up capital of the corporation is Tk3 crore in the existing law. Its amount has not been fixed in the proposed law as the BRTC annual general meeting or special general meeting will fix the amount of the paid-up capital but it cannot exceed the amount of the authorized capital.
There will be a 23-member board of directors instead of the existing 11-member one. These directors will come from Local Government Division, Cabinet Division, Finance Division, Road Transport and Highways Division, Public Security Division, Shipping Ministry, Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority, Roads and Highways Department, representatives from the shareholders and one member from every administrative division.
In the bill, a new provision has been incorporated among the functions of the BRTC that it will render transport services during emergency situation like hartal (strike), blockade, transport strike, emergency condition, national disaster, Biswa Ijtema, freedom fighters’ rally and in the case of emergency need of the state.
The Corporation can form one and more companies taking prior permission from the government.
